Written records and electronic records are important organizational tools for researchers and practitioners in many fields, such as health care, education, social services, and business management. Traditional written records and electronic records (databases) are only as secure as the media in which they are written. Two significant concerns for many hoping to use database records in remote areas of the world are confidentiality and connectivity.
Using local sources—such as written records or local computer hard drives—for recording sensitive database contents, is not desirable. If the written record is stolen, or the local computer crashes, the security of the data is compromised. Written databases with sensitive data are easy targets for thieves or those hoping to compromise the integrity of the data. The security of and access to electronic databases are subject to several factors—computer hard drive reliability, access to electricity, and the physical integrity of the computer itself, just to name a few.
There are also various challenges relating to the exchange of medical information in the case of emergencies and the admissions or intake process for medical facilities. Individuals in emergencies often have no way to communicate life-saving information to first responders and emergency medical personnel—current medications, relevant history, allergies. This lack of information leads to loss of life, treatment errors, and billions of dollars in avoidable costs to providers, hospital systems, and insurers.
Existing, niche-based services for emergency health alert systems have various limitations. Many of these services typically require wearing jewelry or a transponder, which require proximity to a receiver. Other technology such as QR codes do nothing to protect subscribers' identity or to secure the data shared at the time of service provision from anyone with a QR reader from accessing a user's sensitive information. They require first responders to look somewhere—a wallet, a shoe, a purse—for a QR code, which may or may not exist.
Therefore, a need exists for devices, methods and systems that address the underlying problems relating to collecting data from remote locations and populations which desire to remain anonymous or have secure but restricted access to their medical information. A need also exists for systems, methods and devices to address the problems identified above with regard to emergency services and first responder related data delivery.